I worked for Microsoft for 10 years (while Gates was there) and know a lot about the work that he does -- he does very little "advisory" work outside of his own foundations, and he does very little in the area of real estate outside of his own firm -- Cascade Investment -- which is run by his money manager, Michael Larson.Just like the guy I was going back and forth with above -- don't believe everything the so-called "experts" tell you...That said, to answer your question, I certainly don't have the knowledge of Bill Gates. 

Pretty much east side of the cascades or Seirra range will get you cheaper and fun place to live I have to assume your used to beautiful scenery and outdoors.. the mid west is not going to give you that by and large.. thats why its so cheap. 

Hey Lain, I highly recommend two options: Anchorage, Alaska, and The Treasure Valley/Submarkets/Vacation markets to the valley (Mccall, Cascade, etc). 

Right now, Manhattan is having a severe problem as the High Rise buildings are preventing showings, which then cascades to Owners keeping their properties off the market.Until Sales begin to increase in Manhattan, I'll know if there is a migration from Manhattan to outer Boroughs like Brooklyn.However, there was at least one sale that I found in Ditmas Park on 4/15 for $1.9 Million: https://streeteasy.com/sale/1442190Not much data to crunch, but it's still surprising that this sale occurred.I'll have to wait for more data but that probably won't happen for a few more months or even next year as we have to wait for the sales in Manhattan to close first.

I would also suggest Cascade Brewing Barrel House, Eastside Distilling, Sessionable, and Migration Brewing. 

@Michael Baum:  Are yours in the Cascades?

this business takes elbow grease.so I hired a person to go into every county courthouse from the CA Oregon border to just south of Tacoma Washington on the Western side of the Cascade moutains and on the East side of the coast range.. and area probably bigger than the state of New Jersey.. in the courthouse they had great Arial Photogs  ( pre google days) that over laid onto plat maps all right there at the counter... he then built a data base took about 1 year of every land owner with 10 acres or more that was not corporate owned that had visible timber.. we then reserve directoried them.. that's how you find telephone numbers.. and since there were no VA's we hired telemarketers to come into our office 2 times a week and start calling..

So my area would include Cascade, Chipita Park, Green Mountain Falls, Woodland Park, Divide.

as Michael mentioned, Snoqualmie Pass has the worst cashflow of any Cascade Mountain Market - the prices are astronomically high because of the easy 30-45 minute commute to Bellevue and Redmond.

Brian I grew up in the Bay Area my Dad sold real estate in the 60s in the Bay area and for Boise Cascade  I knew what went on there ..